w departure. Percy's _Reliques_, again, is often mentioned as an
'epoch-making' book. Undoubtedly it was a favourite with Scott and many
other readers of his generation. But how far did it create any change of
taste? The old ballad was on one side congenial to the classical school,
as Addison showed by his criticism of _Chevy Chase_ for its simple
version of a heroic theme. Goldsmith tried his hand at a ballad about
the same time with Percy, and both showed that they were a little too
much afraid that simplicity might degenerate into childishness, and gain
Johnson's contempt. But there was nothing in the old school incompatible
with a rather patronising appreciation of the popular poetry. It gained
fresh interest when the historical tendency gave a newer meaning to the
old society in which ballad poetry had flourished.

This suggests the last remark which I have room to make. One
characteristic of the period is a growth of provincial centres of some
intellectual culture. As manufactures extended, and manufacturers began
to read, circles of some literary pretensions sprang up in Norwich,
Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester; and most conspicuously in
Edinburgh. Though the Scot was coming south in numbers which alarmed
Johnson, there were so many eminent Scots at home during this time that
Edinburgh seems at least to have rivalled London as an intellectual
centre. The list of great men includes Hume and Adam Smith, Robertson
and Hailes and Adam Ferguson, Kames, Monboddo, and Dugald Stewart among
philosophers and historians; John Home, Blair, G. Campbell, Beattie, and
Henry Mackenzie among men of letters; Hutton, Black, Cullen, and
Gregory among scientific leaders. Scottish patriotism then, as at other
periods, was vigorous, and happily ceasing to be antagonistic to
unionist sentiment. The Scot admitted that he was touched by
provincialism; but he retained a national pride, and only made the
modest and most justifiable claim that he was intrinsically superior to
the Southron. He still preserved intellectual and social traditions, and
cherished them the more warmly, which marked him as a distinct member of
the United Kingdom. In Scotland the rapid industrial development had
given fresh life to the whole society without obliterating its
distinctive peculiarities. Song and ballad and local legends were still
alive, and not merely objects of literary curiosity. It was under such
conditions that Burns appeared, the greatest beyon